Jammer's Review

Star Trek: Voyager

"Distant Origin"

Air date: 4/30/1997
Written by Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
Directed by David Livingston

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

"I'll see you tonight. BYOB."
"What?"
"Bring your own bat'leth."

— Tom and B'Elanna

Nutshell: Flawed and uneven, but reasonably decent. Good execution on the director's part, and an effective ending.

Based on yet another silly Voyager preview (boy am I sick of their bad, bad trailers) that not only advertised the episode as "special" (again), but also attempted to capitalize on the upcoming Jurassic Park sequel by using the title "LOST WORLD" in big block letters, I went into "Distant Origin" with some serious skepticism. Would this be an obligatory episode about "dinosaurs" just so it could capitalize on a hot marketing item? Fortunately, the answer is no; this episode managed to be pretty entertaining and dialog-oriented, and it was a pleasant surprise in many respects.

At the same time, I should also stress that "Distant Origin" was far from perfect, and had some notable flaws. For one, the basic premise is overblown to the point of near-absurdity. The episode also somewhat suffers from another problem: It doesn't seem completely certain what it wants to accomplish dramatically—at least not until near the end.

"Distant Origin" exemplifies the "uneven" outing—it ultimately tells a reasonable story, but it takes a while for it to get where it's going. By the time it reaches its destination, we realize that it's been a rough ride with drama all over the map—it feels cobbled together out of a bunch of different pieces.

Let's start with the somewhat overblown premise. This is yet another supposition by the Voyager writers that an "element of Earth" managed to make its way into the Delta Quadrant—and, further, that Voyager happens to encounter it. I'm willing to exercise "suspension of disbelief," but, come on—do the writers really need to be doing these "attention-grabbing surprise" stories so often? In "The 37's" we had kidnapped humans somehow brought to the Delta Quadrant by an evil race of aliens, and among these humans was Amelia Earhart, no less. In "Tattoo" we had a race of aliens that, by total coincidence, were the descendants of the ancestors of Chakotay's tribe. In "Unity" we had a colony of humans and other Alpha Quadrant races who used to be Borg but broke free of the collective and settled down in the Nechrid Expanse. Now we have "Distant Origin," an episode that tops all previous examples of the "element of Earth" with the idea that Earth's dinosaurs didn't go extinct—but that they evolved into sentient, intelligent beings who invented space travel and left the planet. Sound absurd? Excessive? What more could you expect from Braga and Menosky, the kings of high-concept weirdness?

Yet, in context, Braga and Menosky manage to make this surprisingly tolerable—and even engaging. When it comes down to the story they eventually tell, I still don't think they needed to reel us in with "Look! Dinosaurs!", but once the premise is laid out, it works surprisingly well, mostly because it chooses an effective character to follow.

That character is Gegen (Henry Woronicz), a scientist of the Voth people. Gegen's research of the "distant origin theory" suggests that the Voth migrated from a place elsewhere in the galaxy, and that their civilization was not founded on the world they now reside. (Naturally, Earth turns out to be this distant origin.) Gegen's discovers what may be corroborating evidence when he stumbles upon human skeletal remains and DNA from the planet where poor Ensign Hogan was eaten (see "Basics, Part II"). From here, Gegen, along with his assistant Veer (Christopher Liam Moore), embarks on the search for the rumored Starship Voyager, which may hold the answers to age-old questions. Interestingly, the first quarter or so of the episode takes place entirely from Gegen's point of view, which supplies the audience with a fresh perspective of the Voyager crew.

I liked the way the episode used past episodes as clues to aid in Gegen's research. The aforementioned acknowledgement to "Basics, Part II" worked pretty nicely, and the reference to "Fair Trade" was welcome, although I don't think it quite worked. (Unless I'm missing something, I don't recall Neelix giving anyone at that station warp plasma from the Voyager. He used some other plasma, all of which was expended in an explosion anyway.)

I also thought the way Gegen and Veer proceeded to investigate the starship Voyager once they had tracked it down was pretty cleverly executed. The phase-cloak technology seemed reasonable enough and consistent with Trekkian lore—some may remember that this technology was established as a Romulan experiment back in TNG's "The Next Phase."

The episode suddenly turns to action when the Voth officials decide they must "kidnap" the Voyager in order to hide what Gegen plans on revealing as the truth that supports his distant origin theory. There's a scene where the Voth capture the Voyager by beaming it inside their own city-ship. The episode then supplies an invasion sequence within the darkened interiors of Voyager. If there's one thing this sequence demonstrates, it's how the Voth's technology is far beyond anything the Voyager crew has encountered. (Although, I must admit that their "poison darts" are strangely primitive-seeming.)

The show's ending puts Gegen and his theories on trial; the Voth leader, Minister Odala (Concetta Tomei), charges him with heresy against "Doctrine," the Voth's fundamental dogma of values and beliefs. In a way, Gegen is in the same situation as was Galileo: His scientific truths are trapped by the boundaries of the contemporary ideology—an ideology firmly established, and interpreted by a current administrator unwilling to see change. Gegen's distant origin theory greatly bothers Minister Odala—she sees it as backward and wrong, and fears its implications on the Voth as a people. The message here (not so subtly conveyed, but conveyed well nonetheless) is the argument of progress versus tradition. As Chakotay explains in a Meaningful Speech Scene (but a nicely performed Meaningful Speech Scene), change is not easy, and it takes courage to be unconventional. Gegen is respectable because he seeks The Truth in his research. Minister Odala's way, on the other hand, of forcing Gegen into retracting his theory (threatening Gegen's freedom as well as the freedom of Voyager's crew) represents the fear of new ideas and the facet of society that maintains the status quo.

One troubling aspect of the episode is the question of how the Voth became the advanced civilization they have become, while relying on a dogma that embraces the status quo. I wouldn't call this a flaw in the story so much as an issue that raises some interesting questions.

I must also stress one thing that really helps the episode's cause: David Livingston's direction is absolutely first rate. At times, the atmosphere in "Distant Origin" is quite intense, using jarring close-ups, compelling low- and high-angle shots, dark lighting, and canted camera angles. The trial scene in particular is a technical standout of fresh photography, but pretty much the whole episode was shot effectively such that I took notice.

It's hard to believe that an episode that begins with a premise as weird as "The civilization that evolved from Earth's dinosaurs and traveled to the Delta Quadrant" can settle back into a respectable tale about the fear of progress and change—but this is exactly what "Distant Origin" does. The episode's story events ultimately do fit together in the long run, even if they don't work very well in the short run. And even though it doesn't do much to offer insight to any of the regular characters, the show does paint Gegen quite well. And even though the premise is outlandish, the final story being told is reasonable. Figuring Livingston's atmospheric direction into the equation, I'm going to give "Distant Origin" a slightly generous three stars. This episode is one of the best-produced so-so episodes that Voyager has yet come up with.

For me Voyager was either hit or miss, mostly miss but in this case it was
a hit. I think the story was a good because it seems to be commenting on
the debate between Intelligent Design and Evolution or any debate that
involves faith vs reason & logic.

Too bad VOY couldn't pull more of these shows up with maybe the exception
of 11:59.

1. I think this may be a sci-fi homage of sorts to the legend of Atlantis.
I forgot where but I've read other stories (all fiction) where such a
proposal was put forth: that the Atlantians were so advanced, they were
capable of space travel.

2. There have been suggestions at times that certain dinosaurs "could" have
evolved into sentient and intelligent beings. Jurassic Park 3 even
suggests something of that sort iirc in reference to the Velociraptor.

A bit absurd? Sure...but no more than warp drive or transporters or
replicators. Or even time travel. Come on, it's a sci-fi show, dare to
dream a little.

It seems to me that the whole idea of the Voth having evolved on earth and
inventing space travel was nothing more then conjecture on Chakotay's part.
It seems beyond ridiculous that no trace of this civilisation was ever
found on earth, even if you accept the implausible explanation that the
Voth confined themselves to a single region of the plant.

I would prefer to think that was just one of many possible theories, and
something that just occured to Chakotay at the time as a quick solution to
the question. It seems far more likely that the Voth were taken from Earth
whilst they were still "dinosaurs" by some advanced race of the time,
perhaps for display in some ancient alien zoo. Cliché? While I could do
without another tale of aliens abducting earthlings, its far more likely
than Chakotay's idea.

What killed this episode for me was its ludicrous depiction of evolution.
In fact they make the same elementary school mistake that we were already
subjected to in TNG's The Chase.

On the holodeck they contended that one can extrapolate what evolution
would do to an organism over a period of many millions of years. However,
this is impossible as one cannot foresee what random mutations will occur
in any given genotype over time. In addition, it is also impossible to
foresee which given mutations will be ultimately selected for as this
depends on entirely random events in the environment. This episode supports
the common lay misconception that evolution aims for specific designs, like
intelligence or upright posture. However, evolution is fundamentally
aimless. Anyone with the most rudimentary grasp of biology knows this.

This begs the question how dumb is Joe Menosky, as he wrote both The Chase
and Distant Origin? Did this guy ever go to school? It almost seems as if
he is on an agenda to unify evolution with intelligent design or something
crazy like that.

"fortyseven" needs to do some more reading - for instance, some of
Wolfram's stuff on cellular automata, then reflect on the fact that
Voyager's computer core runs faster-than-light in a warp bubble. (A
process can be unpredictable and yet deterministic.) In this particular
case, the computer also had the data taken from the Voth specimen they had
- and who knows what else other extra. Note also that in the Trekverse,
The Chase is canonical, therefore Voyager's computer is using that as the
basis of its analysis. Amongst all the implausibilities and impossibilities
of Trek Science, given they're actually being consistent in their logic
here, IMNSVHO it is bizarre to suggest this is a plot hole.

I found the episode engaging. The Voth prosthetics were great and the
actors did well with it. One of Trek's better efforts.

The major logic flaw in plot terms is that the Voth, it would seem, have
tech far in advance of even the Borg (Voyager weaponry and Treknobabble was
dispensed with as a trifle). And, specially given the improved performance
of Transwarp tech and the friendly Voth scientist who hung around with them
at the end, one might have expected Voyager to benefit a great deal more
from the encounter than transpired in the story.

1 comment : I think you glided over the main point of the episode; the
change versus tradition is actually secondary. The Trekkian idea here is
that what makes Voyager, the Federation and humanity advanced in the
23rd/24th centuries is its ideology, not its technology. As purported
rather successfully in early TNG and almost mutilated in DS9, humanity's
accomplishments are in its having overcome what most cynics would label as
inherent and inescapable (negative) qualities of its own design. The whole
point of the dinosaur/evolution theme is to demonstrate just what evolution
really means. The Voth are millions of years farther into their sentience
than humans, but never stepped out of their own Mediæval world-view (an
analogy maybe, maybe??...heavy-handed sure, but that's sci-fi :)).

This is my SINGLE favourite episode of Voyager, and one of my favourite
episodes of Star Trek ever produced (and I've heard that Michael Piller
thought so too). Everything was absolutely stellar: script, acting,
make-up, directing. For a species that appeared only once, a lot of thought
went into the design of the Voth – the cool needles, the protective
hibernation, the fly-eating, the sense of smell, etc. It makes them seem
more real and, ironically, alien.

As you mentioned, starting the episode from Gegen’s perspective gave us a
fresh change of pace, and for once used interesting continuity from
previous episodes. I also thought the invasion scene was very nicely done.
Here is a species that is definitely more technologically advanced then we
have ever seen are truly unbeatable (unlike the Borg or the Dominion).

The final act is a tour-de-force of powerful dialogue and commentary on
contemporary issues with perfect execution. In a way, this isn’t just
about Galileo, but also Copernicus and Darwin and all the other scientists
who faced adversity because their discoveries contradicted the beliefs of
the time, a problem we still encounter today, unfortunately. Chakotay’s
defence of the Voth’s plight is particularly poignant, seeing as he comes
from a tribe that is very proud of their heritage. I have always found
social commentary to be the most effective use of his character (following
on “Unity” and continuing through “Scorpion”, “Nemesis” and
others). And then comes the moment of true sacrifice where Gegen (who is
essentially the protagonist of this story) is obviously willing to give up
his own life for his beliefs, but realizes he cannot give up the lives of
others. Truly tragic stuff.

The only other episode I can think of that deals with this issue is DS9's
"In the Hands of the Prophets", but in that episode the issue was kind of
secondary to the assassin-plot machinations. Here it takes the center
stage, and so it should.

I can forgive the 'coincidence' of Voyager encountering the Saurians
because it wasn't coincidence- the Saurians sought them out, over great
distances. Being annoyed at that is like marveling at the coincidence of a
google search bringing up the thing you were looking for.

I loved the philosophy of this episode, but the science is inconsistent
with the Trek Universe.

Some on this post have mentioned similarities between Distant Origin and
TNG's The Chase. However, these two episodes are contradictory. The Chase
introduced a Panspermia-style explanation for the fact that so many Milky
Way intelligent races look humanoid. They were all "seeded" by the genome
of an ancient parent race. This also explained their similar DNA, a
necessary explanation for characters like B'Elanna Torres, a Klingon-Human
hybrid.

Contradicting this, the saurians of Distant Origin find no common genetic
markers between the humanoid races in the quadrant. Only with humans do
they find a very distant evolutionary tie.

According to The Chase, all humanoids share a common genetic make-up -
enough to intermarry in many cases. According to Distant Origin, most
humanoids do not share common genetics - and those that do, necessarily
evolve on the same planet.

The fail of the Panspermia notion presented in "The Chase" is that, if not
for the Chicxulub impact, a humanoid race (presumably meaning mammalian)
wouldn't be the preeminent species that developed on Earth. Unless we
assume that the seeding was done after that impact, which would seem to run
counter to what was being attempted by that ancient race.

Oh, and by the way, "gegen" in German means "against." I doubt that's a
coincidence.

Another example of the reviewer's misunderstanding of the meaning of the
word "premise"--the evolution/dinosaur theme/idea is not the premise, it's
the means by which the premise is proved. The premise is more or less what
I stated in my previous post, that "evolved" has less to do with technology
or abilities or grandeur and more to do with ideals and one's loyalty to
them.

When the premise is engaging and strong (as it is here, otherwise the final
act would have nothing to say), the means to that end are all but
irrelevant. What the means happen to be in this episode 1) draw attention
to the theme of evolution, naturally, and 2) give the executors of the
script license to have some fun which we can all appreciate.

Where you saw "hey, look dinosaurs", I saw a scripting veneer which
reflected the deeper themes of the episode.

I feel I must point out the arbitrary bias in the language of your Voyager
reviews as well. You point out the "Meaningful Speech Scene" regarding
Chakotay--why wasn't the same cynical label given to Eddington's speech in
"For the Cause"? It's the same affect for the same purpose (dramatically
speaking) and even comes at about the same point in the episode. Yet, there
you treat it like a totally fresh and uncontrived device. This is unfair.

This is a 4-star episode which could reasonably be docked half a star for
the capture-the-ship scene which totally loses momentum (albeit briefly).

I agree with the review. It was superbly executed and mostly satisfying
episode. The dialogue was excellent, Gegen was an extremely well conceived
character, The City-Ship was literally awesome, and Chakotay's speech at
the end was top notch. But why, oh why did the Voth have to be the progeny
of dinosaurs who "left" Earth and yet left no traces of their sentient
existence behind?

Seriously??? I swear Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky just aren't happy with a
script until it strains credulity to its breaking point.

Couldn't they have just made the Voth's "distant origin" be simply
somewhere in the Alpha Quadrant? Distant relatives of...I don't know, the
Saurians who invented Saurian Brandy or something? Or the Gorn?

The truly important part of the story was that it was, more or less, an
allegory of the Galileo trial, which was as worthy a Star Trek idea as they
come. It would have worked no matter where the Voth's true "distant origin"
actually was. But they just HAD to have dinos didn't they? This episode
could have been a true classic if it weren't for that.

Braga is quoted as having said he thought the dinosaur angle was "a neat
science fiction idea." Maybe so, but it wasn't a neat Star Trek idea.

You know what? I watched it again with my kids last night and I've changed
my mind. It is a true classic. The story's so good that it manages to
transcend the implausible (but just barely). And sometimes I need to remind
myself that when a show like this manages to spark so much conversation and
difference of opinion, it ultimately does what it sets out to do - it
entertains. I had a similar change of heart after I watched the movie
"Magnolia" for the second time.

Expanding on what John Pate said...the Voth did indeed seem to have immense
technology, and would seem a prime target for Borg assimilation, especially
residing in the DQ. Perhaps the Voth are so powerful that resistance isn't
futile.

Its funny watching this how many levels the allegory works. Re-watching now
Odala reminded me of ignorant white folks who claim to be "real americans"
not like those illegals. Never mind that most americans are immigrants
themselves. The way she says "refugee" like a dirty word reminds me of
real world prejudices against those who move into a new area.

This episode has elements which very much reminds me of the 1960s' Planet
of the Apes with the themes of absolute doctrine versus challenging new
ideas and how much process can be feared when we leave the comfort of
ignorance.

Distant Origin was a call-back to classic science fiction and I loved it,
skillfully done. 3.5/4

I am coming at this episode from a fresh perspective, as i have just viewed
it for the very first time. This episode it nearing a "Four" star classic
from me, but like one of the commenters mentioned, that the Voth have
technology that not even the Borg possess, yet they do not seem like a
hostile race of beings. Anyway, the story was extremely well written and
perhaps one of the finer moments related to the Voyager series.

I saw this first the first time. Loved the Voth perspective. One of the
best Trek episodes I have seen. I can't really think of a weakness from a
Sci-Fi or Trek perspective. It was superb. I think Jammer must have been
influenced by the preview too much and how much he hated it. He came from
a 'bad' place and it improved. I believe if he came from a 'neutral' place,
it would be a 4 star episode.

The Voth seemed like the advanced culture that they were. Not deaths but
detentions. The threats were based on 'losing' honors, position, or
prestige.

4/4 stars for me. One of the most thoughtful and socio-philosophical
episodes I've seen on Trek.

Ironically, the only thing that really bothered me is not the sci-fi
dinosaur stuff (which I enjoyed a lot), but the Minister's ultimate
stubbornness. After Chakotay's speech, I was kind of relieved, I thought it
would somehow open the Minister's mind to "reevaluate". But no. However, I
do understand the point they were trying to make, that some indoctrinated
people (in real life) will --willingly-- discard logical evidence and
common sense that contradict their irrational beliefs even though you shove
the proof right in their faces.

Really? I don't discount the persuasiveness of Chakotay's argument, but I
think that it would have been much less convincing for the Minister to set
aside for years of beliefs and "doctrine" after a 2-minute speech, however
eloquently delivered.

I always thought this episode was underrated in Voyager's run. It's
something that really could have been straight out of TOS or TNG -- Kirk,
Spock, Bones or Picard in Chakotay's role would have really been
interesting -- and I generally liked the way different characters were
utilized.

I'll grant Jammer's point that the "piece of Earth" thing was overdone in
Voyager. But, then, it was overdone in just about every series, except
maybe DS9. Granted, Voyager's farther from Earth than the other vessels,
but I didn't find this episode crazier than Kirk finding "20th century
Rome", or Picard finding a group of aliens going back in time to
19th-century Earth to suck the life energy out of humans.

If Voyager had been more like this episode, it would have been a much
stronger series. This was generally engaging, and the aliens weren't just
hard-headed guys who had slight makeup and fired on the ship.

Jammer was quite accurate to point that Voyager has played this card of "an
element of Earth in the Delta Quadrant" way too often. Not to mention that
Trek in general has abused the idea of alien connections with past Earth.
It is starting to get childish. Sure, in what regards execution this
episode is one of the best approaches to that theme in the whole Trek. But
still, it feels really repetitive.

Discounting that and the cartoonish idea of the aliens being evolved
dinossaurs... well, the execution of the episode was excelente. Almost
perfect, for my taste. The way the episode starts is quite amuzing and,
actually, as soon as I saw the show keeping a while without even showing
Voyager, I felt sort of a breath of fresh air.

The premise was very powerful as well. And talking about that, I certainly
agree with Elliot that it was not about tradition versus change. Of course
not, this was quite superficial. The subtle debate about what it really
means to evolve as a civilization was way deeper.

Also, the way the episode ended was really really good. Reminded me of the
best episodes of DS9, which I was missing.

In the end, if one discounts the major crucial problems of "element of
Earth" and "dinossaurs", this one easily desserves at least a 9/10 score.
Not discounting, it drops to at most 7/10.

The review seems biased. The episode beats at least half of the 4 star
episodes of DSP, and 80% of 4 stars from TNG reviews.
Anyway, although I like the jammer reviews for other St series, for voyager
I visit this page to read the comments regarding the reviews, not the
reviews themselves.

@kapages - Your mileage may vary, but considering the POINT of VOY was to
explore the OTHER parts of the galaxy people are justified in having VOY
lose a half star anytime they encounter things we've seen in the alpha
quadrant. And a whole star if it HAPPENS to be from Earth of all places.

Your mileage may vary, but I ding most episodes on those grounds.

Exceptions -
1) Eye of the Needle - This was interesting enough and the show hadn't
retreaded the Gilligan's island theme bad enough yet to cost it.

2) False Profits - Considering TNG sent these guys to the Delta quadrant,
I'll forgive VOY here. That doesn't make the episode good, but it doesn't
get auto dinged.

3) Anything with the Borg, since they come from the Delta quadrant.

4) The Barclay episodes, because contacting the Alpha Quadrant is different
than finding random things from it.

Although I actually think this episode is good enough to soften me a bit on
the full star ding. I'll give it 3.5. It's gotta lose SOMETHING for
encountering aliens that have visited Earth three times in 2 seasons
(Tattoo, The 37's and Distant Origin). You can feel free to disagree, but
absurdity loses points in my book.

Absolutely incredible episode that mirrors the seemingly eternal struggle
of holding illogically and stubbornly fast to tradition despite the reality
of any given situation. Great direction and pacing with some of the best
technical work on Voyager. Believable performances across the board by the
guest cast and one of the best Chakotay scenes ever written.

The idea of Voyager running into yet another race or whatever from the
Alpha Quadrant here is a complete non-issue. For one thing, Voth space is
apparently vast. For another thing, Gegen and his assistant had been
actively searching for Voyager at trans-warp speeds.

Also, the idea of the Voth evolving on our planet, developing space travel,
and escaping before a cataclysmic event is a bit of a stretch, but not any
more than anything else in sci-fi and Star Trek. I thought it to be quite a
neat idea when it came down to it.

There might be an interesting parallel here, if one wants to see it, that
would make Chakotay's role in the story particularly ironic. The Voths'
"doctrine" says that their origins are in the Delta Quadrant, that they are
not "immigrants," whereas the scientific data point to an origin in the
Alpha Quadrant. The parallel is that according to some of their oral
histories, some Native Americans have been living on the North American
continent since their genesis; however, genetic and linguistic data connect
the "native" people of North America with ancient northeast Asians who
migrated across what is now the Bering Strait when Asia and what is now
Alaska were connected by a land bridge.

Don't many cultures have origin myths that claim that they have "always"
been in such-and-such place?

In a sense, some of them at least are not wrong. The ancient ancestors of
Native Americans were migrants from Asia, sure--and as for all humans,
their still-more-ancient ancestors were Africans.

But specific Native American nations certainly are native to the Americas,
in that the divergence that made them distinct happened well after the
Bering crossing. No creator god put the Lakota on the North American
plains, but the Lakota have never been anywhere else.

This was a great episode- but ultimately I found myself distracted by the
opportunity for transwarp tech.
How many times can Voyger encounter a Q or an ally with superior tech (a
friendly Saurian scientist for example) and not get a boost? Doesn't make
any sense!!